Expenditures for Long-Term Care

Abstract

This paper concerns itself with public expenditures for long-term care (LTC) and seeks to make sense of the differences among European countries, using the concept of de-familialization under the welfare regime framework. For this we rely on a comparative analysis of data on public expenditures for 22 countries in Europe and on private expenditures for a smaller set of countries, supplemented by other indicators. Rather than simply mirroring dissimilarities in the aging process of the respective population, differences in public expenditures seem to reflect the degree to which care is still a strong family obligation in some countries. This is visible also in the way welfare states support care through cash or services, and potentially different public/private mixes of financing.